"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of
‘rights'… and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure."
Robert Heinlein, 1959
Have we lost sight of our duties to our nation?
We are a country that sees jury duty as an inconvenience, thinks St. Louis Cardinal
safety Pat Hill is nuts for leaving the NFL for the US Army, looks for every
conceivable way to avoid taxes, and consistently has voter turnouts in the 40%
range.
All the while, we clamor for a "Patient's Bill of Rights," or an "Airline Passenger
Bill of Rights," as though they were an inalienable as life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
Rights are granted in return for a specific duty performed for the country. We get
a driver's license after learning the rules of the road and passing a test. We are
granted the right to a trial by a jury of our peers, and in return we are expected
to take our turn as one of those ‘peers' in the jury box.
Unfortunately, "rights" have become a buzzword that accompanies any perceived
injustice, real or otherwise. When we are stuck waiting for a plane to leave the
airport, we complain about how we have a "right" to be notified of airline delays;
we rarely, if ever, talk about how to enforce that "right" on the airlines – by
taking our dollars to an airline that does notify us of a delay. We complain about
having a "right" to a fair and hassle-free workplace instead of taking our labor
somewhere better to work.
In the meantime, county courthouses are inundated with jury-duty excuses barely
better than "the dog ate my summons." The military has difficulty meeting even
modest recruitment goals. Voters decide to protest the candidates in the election
by voting for no one, thereby ensuring that someone they don't like will win. We
disobey traffic lights, speed limits, and one-way street signs while complaining
that high gas taxes infringe on our "right" to travel freely.
The United States is a diverse land. At its best, it provides a stable and
reasonable framework for its citizens to pursue our dreams within a legal, civil
society. Unfortunately, as politicians pander to various constituencies, we get to
see America at its worst: currying favor with political solutions to what should be
economic decisions, while denigrating those basic and inalienable rights endowed to
us by the Creator and articulated by the framers.
"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" does not include free meals at
airports during flight delays, cheap access to prescription drugs, or having a nice
guy for a boss at work. Nowhere in the Bill of Rights is it articulated that the
government provide checks to the unemployed, education to the illiterate, or tax
breaks to large corporations.
And it certainly should not even consider to provide any of these so long as its
citizens continue to shirk their duties to the same country from which they demand
these "rights."